We meet the second Monday of each month (please note
exceptions), September through June, at Center
Congregational Church, 11 Center Street, Manchester, CT.
Meetings begin at 7:00 pm (doors open 6:45 pm). Parking is
next door behind the Manchester Town Hall. We welcome guest attendance.
SEPTEMBER 10, 2018
Alina Ciscel: A Guide to a Four
Season Garden
This presentation will discuss perennials and shrubs
that combine well in different seasons. Alina will talk
about how flowers, foliage color, and texture, as well as
fragrance are combined to achieve a year round interest in
the garden. She will also touch upon how to use spent
flowers and woody plants to create garden art.
Alina Ciscel is an Associate Professor and ESL Program
Coordinator at Manchester Community College. She holds an
M.A. in linguistics from the University of South Carolina
and a certificate in Landscape Design from Naugatuck Valley
Community College, and is the owner of West End Blooms where
she works summers as a garden coach and a landscape
designer.
OCTOBER 15, 2018
Elaine
Naczkowski: Winter Seed Sowing
Elaine explains that "In December, January and February I always looked forward
to the seed catalogs that come … and plan what new I will try when planting time
comes around. This year was going to be different. Wouldn’t it be fun to do some
planting right now? Would they survive the cold and snow? This is winter seed
sowing."
Elaine is a former Club member. As a registered nurse, she worked in
the surgical, stepdown, and special care units at St. Francis Hospital. When she
had children she moved on to the school system, better known as a mini ER with
no equipment but lots of backup. In 2007, she was accepted in the Master Garden
program at UConn and became a Master Gardener.
NOVEMBER 12, 2018
Nancy
DuBrule-Clemente: Old Wood, New Wood - A Pruning Primer
Learn the reasons for pruning shrubs at different times of
the year. Understand the natural habit of a plant, how to
prune to generate abundant flowers and fruit on new wood as
well as how to deal with dead or diseased growth.
Nancy has a degree in Floriculture from UConn. She started
Natureworks in 1983 with $500 in her pocket and a bright
gold Datsun pickup truck, and ran Natureworks out of an
abandoned gas station until 1990 when she purchased the
property in Northford. It was a private home which she
converted to a garden center and retail store. Natureworks
now has over 25 employees. Nancy has authored
two books, and writes for local and national publications,
as well as teaching many classes throughout Connecticut.
DECEMBER 10, 2018
Holiday Party
JANUARY 14, 2019
Chrissie and John D'Esopo: Chrissie and John D’Esopo's Wild
and Wooly Conifer World - Four Seasons of a Creative
Botanical Wonderland
Chrissie tells entertaining garden stories followed by a 30
minute slide show set to lively Beatle's music. The program
is concluded with Q&A session.
Chrissie and John have been gardening at their Avon home for
over thirty years. It has been an evolution from the
beginning gardens of annuals and perennials to the
extraordinary new look of conifers, topiaries, and rare
shrubs with the addition of "in your face" enormous annuals!
FEBRUARY 11, 2019
Richard
Howard: Daylilies 101
Rich will talk about different kinds of daylilies and their
attributes, how to hybridize your own varieties, and will
show many images of newer cutting edge cultivars.
Richard Howard is a retired civil engineer, past president
of the Connecticut Daylily Society, and a master gardener.
He resides in Wallingford, in growing zone 6. His two acre
home has many perennial beds (mostly daylilies), a
greenhouse, and about 4,000 pots of daylilies. He grows
about 1,500 different named varieties of daylilies as well
as other perennials and some unusual annuals. Rich has been
hybridizing daylilies for 15 years and has introduced over
80 of his own creations into commerce. He currently has
several thousand of his own seedlings in various beds
throughout his yard.
Rich sells from his web site and on the Lily auction (www.daylily.com)
under the handle "rich". Many of his auction sales are for
seeds. He operates an AHS approved display garden and his
web site is
www.ctdaylily.com.
MARCH 11, 2019
Cathy Ritch: Cute, Classic and
Creative, a Design for Every Lifestyle
Learn several easy floral designs that you can do at home
for little time and expense. Incorporated into the talk
will be the Principles and Elements of Design, mechanics,
and leaf manipulation. The final designs will be raffled
off at the end of the talk.
Cathy Ritch is a lifelong gardener and lover of flowers. In
the late 70s she began her study of floral design with
Ikebana classes while living in Japan for a year with her
husband. In the 80s, she gardened for hire and learned more
about plant material. In the 90s, she was able to spend
time learning about Creative Floral Design by attending
Flower Show School and creating floral designs with the
Creative Arrangers of CT. She
became an NGC Accredited Judge in 2014. Her designs have
won blue ribbons and top NGC design awards at several CT
flower shows and been published in the NGC Vision of Beauty
Calendar. She has exhibited at the New Britain Museum of
American Art's "Floral Expressions".
Cathy has been the
CT State Flower Show Chair for the past three years, as well as
conceiving, coordinating and teaching workshops at the
Beyond Beginning Floral Design classes sponsored by Judges
Council of Federated Garden Clubs of CT.
APRIL 8, 2019
Barb Scala: Garden to Table - Edible Gardens & More!
As a Master Gardener and Director of the CT Farm & Food
Guide, Barb is dedicated to spreading the word about the
importance of garden-fresh foods. In her presentation Barb
will talk about organic and seasonal gardening, nutrient
dense foods, and edible landscapes, including a surprising
look at edible flowers and weeds.
Barb Scala has a law degree from Quinnipiac University, and
dealing with the stresses in the life of an attorney led her
to a commitment to wellness, healthy living, and the
environment. She also is the co-author of Sanity
Savers: Tips for Women to Live a Balanced Life, and
she is a Transition Coach. Barb is a Master Gardener,
Director of the CT Farm & Food Guide, and member of the New
Haven Food Policy Council. She lives and gardens on the
Connecticut Shoreline.
MAY 13, 2019
John Himmelman: Insects & Their Amazingosity!
It's tough being a bug. Scores of other animals want to eat
you. The cold is your mortal enemy. No matter how tiny you
are, you need to find others of your kind in this great big
world. And you have very little time in which to accomplish
what you need to in your brief journey on this planet. But
these hardships have made the insects very good at what they
do. This presentation will give insight into the remarkable
adaptations these creatures have developed in order to
survive. Hear stories of dragonflies and bumblebees;
butterflies and dung beetles. What's the difference between
a bee and a wasp - who has the worst sting? Why are there
ladybugs all over my house? ...And answers to questions you
didn't know you had.
John Himmelman is an author, illustrator, naturalist, and
lecturer. He is a co-founder of the CT
Butterfly Association, and past president of the New
Haven Bird Club, The Nature Connection, and the Killingworth
Land Trust. He has lectured and led numerous trips in
search of various flora and fauna throughout the country for
over 25 years. Himmelman has written and illustrated over 80
books for adults and children on a wide variety of natural
history subjects. Books may be available for purchase and
signing on the date of the visit.
JUNE 10, 2019
Members'
Year-End Party